STABLE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Stable

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/stˈeɪbəl/ Listen

adjective

Stable adj.

1.

Firmly established; not easily moved, shaken, or overthrown; fixed; as, a stable government. "In this region of chance,... where nothing is stable."

2.

Steady in purpose; constant; firm in resolution; not easily diverted from a purpose; not fickle or wavering; as, a man of stable character. "And to her husband ever meek and stable."

3.

Durable; not subject to overthrow or change; firm; as, a stable foundation; a stable position.

4.

(Physics) So placed as to resist forces tending to cause motion; of such structure as to resist distortion or molecular or chemical disturbance; said of any body or substance.

Stable equilibrium (Mech.), the kind of equilibrium of a body so placed that if disturbed it returns to its former position, as in the case when the center of gravity is below the point or axis of support; opposed to unstable equilibrium, in which the body if disturbed does not tend to return to its former position, but to move farther away from it, as in the case of a body supported at a point below the center of gravity. Cf. Neutral equilibrium, under Neutral.

Synonyms: Fixed; steady; constant; abiding; strong; durable; firm.

noun

Stable n. A house, shed, or building, for beasts to lodge and feed in; esp., a building or apartment with stalls, for horses; as, a horse stable; a cow stable.

Stable fly (Zool.), a common dipterous fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) which is abundant about stables and often enters dwellings, especially in autumn; called also biting house fly. These flies, unlike the common house flies, which they resemble, bite severely, and are troublesome to horses and cattle. They differ from the larger horse fly.

verb

Stable v. t. To fix; to establish. (Obs.)

Stable v. t. (past & past part. stabled; pres. part. stabling) To put or keep in a stable.

Stable v. i. To dwell or lodge in a stable; to dwell in an inclosed place; to kennel.

See images of 'Stable'

Etymology of 'Stable'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stable" Quotes from Famous Books

... softly out of the house, and ran across and down the road to the tavern. Dexter Beers, the landlord, was just going around the wide sweep of drive to the stable with a meal-sack over his shoulder. No one else was in sight; it was so cold there were no loafers about. Madelon ran after him, and overtook him before he reached the ...

— Madelon - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... fever was prevailing in the village, and his want of sleep, his exhaustion, and his misery, made him apt to take it. The grave was not difficult to reopen. A fresh fall of snow had again made all things white and smooth; Rab once more looked on, and slunk home to the stable. ...

— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten

... and likely to surprise us more in the end. Everything has been found untenable. Theories and systems are shaken by the great upheaval. Civilization has become a question instead of a postulate. All human thought is undergoing a process of retrospection, drawn by a desire to find a new and stable beginning. Take down Spencer and Comte or Lecky and Kidd from your bookshelf and try to settle down to a contented contemplation of the sociological tenets of the past. You will fail, for you will feel that ...

— Mountain Meditations - and some subjects of the day and the war • L. Lind-af-Hageby

... but wearing on his head a flat blue cap, widening out from brim to crown, with a yellow band round the forehead—the watering cap of a Light Dragoon. He walked very erect, though he limped slightly with one leg; and over one shoulder he carried a clean white stable-rubber, neatly folded, with a stable-halter tied across it. Hanging on to his hand on one side was a little boy of about nine years old with great brown eyes and glossy black hair, dressed in a very short little brown jacket with ...

— The Drummer's Coat • J. W. Fortescue

... perfect bower of giant trees. Ivy and creepers of all sorts clung to its stones and crept up its walls, long tendrils of vivid green. The drive swept round a beautifully kept lawn and vanished through a stone gateway leading into the stable-yard. It was only a pretence at a garden in front. Uncle John always held that the open space which lay at the back of the house and on to which the drawing-room windows opened was the real thing. There, was more green grass, which centuries of care and weeding and rolling had transformed ...

— To Love • Margaret Peterson

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